EESOLUTIONS 

ADOPTED  AT 

TIE  SILVER  COIVEITIOI, 

HELD  AT  CHICAGO, 

August  1st  and  2d,  1893. 


Whereas,  Bimetallism  is  as  ancient  as  human  history  ;  certainly 
for  more  than  3,000  years  gold  and  silver  came  down  through  the 
ages  hand  in  hand,  their  relations  to  each  other  having  varied  hut  a 
few  points  in  all  that  vast  period  of  time  and  then  almost  invariably 
through  legislation  ;  and 

Whereas,  The  two  metals  are  named  together,  indissolubly  united 
in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  as  the  standard  of  value 
of  this  country,  placed  there  by  George  Washington,  Thomas 
Jefferson,  John  Adams,  Alexander  Hamilton  and  their  associates, 
and  subsequently  indorsed  and  defended  by  Andrew  Jackson  and 
Abraham  Lincoln  ;  and, 

Whereas,  Silver,  one  of  these' ancient  metals,  was,  in  the  year 
1873,  without  any  previous  demand  by  any  political  party,  or  by  any 
part  of  the  people,  or  even  by  any  newspapers,  and  without  public 
discussion,  stricken  down  from  the  place  it  had  occupied  since  the 
days  of  Abraham  and  the  Pharaohs,  under  circumstances  of  such 
secrecy  that  Allen  G-.  Thurman,  James  B.  Beck,  William  M.  Stewart, 


Daniel  W.  Yoorhees,  James  G.  I  < ..e,  then  Speaker  of  the  House, 
James  A.  Garfield,  William  D.  K  „  and  others  present  and  voting 
for  the  bill,  as  Senators  or  Representatives,  subsequently  repeatedly 
and  publicly  declared  that  they  did  not  know  until  long  afterward 
that  so  great  and  grave  a  change  had  been  made  in  the  financial 
system  founded  by  the  fathers  of  the  republic  ;  and, 

Whereas,  The  debates  in  Congress  show  that  the  parentage  of  the 
measure  was  in  part  ascribed  by  friends  of  the  bill  to  one  Ernest 
Seyd,  a  London  banker,  who  it  is  claimed,  was  sent  over  to  Wash¬ 
ington  by  the  moneyed  classes  of  the  Old  World  to  secure  its  passage 
by  secret  and  corrupt  means,  and, 

Whereas,  President  Grant,  who  signed  the  bill,  declared  long 
subsequently  that  he  did  not  know  that  it  demonetized  silver  ;  and, 
Whereas,  The  purpose  of  this  attack  upon  one  of  the  two  ancient 
precious  metals  of  the  world  was,  by  striking  down  one-half  of  the 
money  supply — to  wit,  silver — to  double  the  purchasing  power  of  the 
remainder,  gold,  by  making  it  the  equivalent  of  everything  possessed 
or  produced  by  the  labor  of  man,  thus  reducing  the  price  of  all  com¬ 
modities,  arresting  enterprise,  impoverishing  the  toiler  and  degrad¬ 
ing  mankind.  That  these  results  were  not  only  inevitable  but  for- 
seen,  appears  by  the  following  language  used  at  that  time  by  the 
then  President  of  the  Bank  of  France,  who  said  :  “If  by  a  stroke 
of  the  pen  they  suppress  one  of  these  metals  in  the  monetary  service 
they  double  the  demand  for  the  other  metal,  to  the  ruin  of  all 
debtors  ;  ”  and, 

w  Whereas,  The  awful  consequences  thus  prophesied  are  now  upon 
the  people  of  the  whole  world,  we  stand  in  the  midst  of  unparalleled 
distress,  and  in  the  shadow  of  impending  calamities  which  are  be¬ 
yond  estimate.  The  ruling  industry  of  the  people  who  inhabit  one- 
tliird  of  the  area  of  this  republic  has  been  stricken  down,  property 
values  destroyed,  and  the  workmen  compelled  to  fly  as  from  pestilence. 
Everywhere  over  this  broad  land  the  honest  toilers,  numbering  hun¬ 
dreds  of  thousands,  have  been  thrown  out  of  employment,  and  will 
have  to  eat  the  bitter  bread  of  eharitfy,  or  starve.  The  products  of 
industry,  of  the  farm  and  the  works  lop,  have  depreciated  in  price, 
as  shown  by  official  and  public  ?  atistics,  until  production  ceases  to 
be  profitable  ;  the  money  in  the  ecu  utry,  inadequate  for  the  business 


f  § 


of  the  land,  has  gravitated  to  tlu  banks  ;  while  the  people,  distrust¬ 
ing  the  hanks,  have  demanded  deposits  to  hoard  or  hide  them  ; 
mercantile  houses  are  going  to  the  wall  by  thousands  because  the 
masses  have  not  the  means  to  buy  even  the  necessities  of  life  ;  to 
supply  the  lack  of  currency  the  hanks  of  the  great  cities  have  issued 
a  substitute  for  money  unknown  to  the  laws,  called  clearing-house 
certificates  ;  the  movement  of  the  great  crops  now  being  gathered 
demands  a  vast  amount  of  currency,  which  the  banks  are  unable  to 
furnish  ;  and  in  the  midst  of  these  conditions  the  daily  press  is  clamor¬ 
ing  for  the  repeal  of  the  act  of  J uly  14,  1890,  called  the  Sherman  act, 
although  the  repeal  of  that  act  means  the  stoppage  of  the  issue  of 
more  than  $3,000,000  every  month  ;  thus  shutting  off  the  supply  of 
funds  for  the  business  of  the  country  in  the  midst  of  the  terrible 
conditions  which  surround  us  ;  and  ignoring  the  fact  that  to  hold 
the  balance  level  between  the  debtor  and  creditor  classes  the  supply 
of  currency  must  increase  side  by  side  with  the  increase  of  population 
and  business  ;  and  that  in  this  nation  the  growth  of  population  is  at 
the  rate  of  about  30  per  cent,  every  ten  years,  while  the  increase  of 
business  is  much  greater  ;  and, 

Whereas,  The  great  expounder  of  the  Constitution,  Daniel 
Webster,  said  :  “  Gold  and  silver,  at  rates  fixed  by  Congress,  con¬ 
stitute  the  legal  standard  of  value  in  this  country,  and  neither  Con¬ 
gress  nor  any  State  has  authority  to  establish  any  other  standard  or 
to  displace  that  standard  and, 

Whereas,  The  Hon.  James  G.  Blaine,  quoting  this  utterance, 
adds  :  “On  the  much- vexed  and  long-mooted  question  as  to  a  bime¬ 
tallic  or  monometallic  standard,  my  own  views  are  sufficiently 
indicated  in  the  remarks  I  have  made.  I  believe  the  struggle  now 
going  on  in  this  country  and  in  other  countries  for  a  single  gold 
standard,  would,  if  successful,  produce  widespread  disaster  in  and 
throughout  the  commercial  world.  The  destruction  of  silver  as  money 
and  establishing  gold  as  the  sole  unit  of  value  must  have  a  ruinous 
effect  on  all  forms  of  property  except  those  investments  which  yield 
a  fixed  return  in  money.  These  would  be  enormously  exhanced  in 
value  and  would  gain  a  dispropu-  ionate  and  unfair  advantage  over 
every  other  species  of  property  ,  as  the  most  reliable  statistics 
affirm,  there  are  nearly  $7,00 -1,0'  ,000  of  coin  or  bullion  in  the 


UNIVERSITY  OF 
ILLINOIS  LIBRARY 
AT  URBAN  A-CHAMPAIGN 


4 


world,  very  equally  divided  between  gold  and  silver,  it  is  impossible 
to  strike  silver  out  of  existence  as  money  without  results  which  will 
prove  distressing  to  millions  and  utterly  disastrous  to  tens  of  thou-  } 
sands.  ” 

Again  he  said  :  “  I  believe  gold  and  silver  coin  to  be  the  money  of 
the  Constitution  ;  indeed,  the  money  of  the  American  people  anterior 
to  the  Constitution,  which  the  great  organic  law  recognized  as  quite 
independent  of  its  own  existence.  No  power  was  conferred  on  Con¬ 
gress  to  declare  either  metal  should  not  be  money.  Congress  has, 
therefore,  in  my  judgment,  no  power  to  demonetize  either.  If,  there¬ 
fore,  silver  has  been  demonetized  I  am  in  favor  of  remonetizing  it.  If 
its  coinage  has  been  prohibited  I  am  in  favor  of  ordering  it  to  be 
resumed.  I  am  in  favor  of  having  it  enlarged/'  and, 

Whereas,  The  present  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  the  Hon.  John 
Gr.  Carlisle,  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  February 
21,  1878  said  :  “  I  know  that  the  world’s  stock  of  the  precious  metals 
is  none  too  large,  and  I  see  no  reason  to  apprehend  that  it  will  ever 
become  so.  Mankind  will  be  fortunate,  indeed,  if  the  annual  pro¬ 
duction  of  gold  and  silver  coin  shall  keep  pace  with  the  annual 
increase  of  population,  commerce  and  industry.  According  to  my 
views  of  the  subject  the  conspiracy  which  seems  to  have  been  formed 
here  and  in  Europe  to  destroy  by  legislation  and  otherwise  from 
three-sevenths  to  one-half  of  the  metallic  money  of  the  world  is  the 
most  gigantic  crime  of  this  or  any  other  age.  The  consummation  of 
such  a  scheme  would  ultimately  entail  more  misery  upon  the  human 
race  than  all  the  wars,  pestilences,  and  famines  that  ever  occurred 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  The  absolute  and  instantaneous  de¬ 
struction  of  half  the  entire  movable  property  of  the  world,  including 
houses,  ships,  railroads,  and  all  other  appliances  for  carrying  on 
commerce,  while  it. would  be  felt  more  sensibly  at  the  moment,  would 
not  produce  anything  like  the  prolonged  distress  and  disorganization 
of  society  that  must  inevitably  result  from  the  permanent  annihilation 
of  half  the  metallic  money  in  the  world/’  and, 

Whereas,  Senator  John  Sherman,  of  Ohio,  who  more  than  any 
other  man  is  responsible  for  the  demonetization  of  silver,  clearly  * 
understood  the  evil  consequences  of  shrinking  currency  below  the  legi¬ 
timate  demand  ol  the  business  of  the  country,  as  evidenced  by  what 


he  said  in  the  Senate  in  1869 — to  wit:  ee  The  contraction  of  the  cur¬ 
rency  is  a  far  more  distressing  operation  than  Senators  suppose.  Our 
own  and  other  nations  have  gone  inrough  that  operationbef  ore.  It  is 
not  possible  to  take  that  voyage  without  the  sorest  distress.  To 
every  person  except  a  capitalist  out  of  debt,  or  a  salaried  officer,  or  an¬ 
nuitant,  it  is  a  period  of  loss,  danger,  lassitude  of  trade,  fall  of  wages, 
suspension  of  enterprise,  bankruptcy  and  disaster.  It  means  ruin  to 
all  dealers  whose  debts  are  one-half  their  business  capital,  though 
one-third  less  than  their  actual  property.  It  means  the  fall  of  all 
agricultural  productions  without  any  great  reduction  of  taxes. 
What  prudent  man  would  dare  to  build  a  house,  a  railroad,  a  factory 
or  a  barn  with  this  certain  fact  before  him  ?  ” 

Therefore,  in  view  of  all  these  facts  we  declare : 

1.  That  there  must  be  no  compromise  of  this  question.  All  legisla¬ 
tion  demonetizing  silver  and  restricting  the  coinage  thereof  must  be 
immediately  and  completely  repealed  by  an  act  restoring  the  coinage 
of  the  country  to  the  conditions  established  by  the  founders  of  the 
Nation  and  which  continued  for  over  eighty  years  without  complaint 
from  any  part  of  our  people.  Every  hour’s  delay  in  undoing  the 
corrupt  work  of  Ernest  Seyd  and  our  foreign  enemies  is  an  insult  to  the 
dignity  of  the  American  people,  a  crushingburdenon  their  prosperity, 
and  an  attempt  to  place  us  again  under  the  yoke  from  which  George 
Washington  and  his  compatriots  rescued  us.  We  protest  against  the 
financial  policy  of  the  United  States  being  made  dependent  upon  the 
opinion  or  policies  of  any  foreign  government,  and  assert  the  power 
of  this  Nation  to  stand  on  its  own  feet  and  legislate  for  itself  upon 
all  subjects. 

2.  We  declare  that  the  only  remedy  for  our  financial  troubles 
is  to  open  the  mints  of  the  Nation  to  gold  and  silver  on  equal 
terms,  at  the  old  ratio  of  sixteen  of  silver  to  one  of  gold.  Whenever 
silver  bullion  can  be  exchanged  at  the  mints  of  the  United  States  for 
legal  tender  silver  dollars  worth  100  cents  each,  that  moment  412^ 
grains  of  standard  silver  will  be  vorth  100  cents  ;  and  as  commerce 
equalizes  the  prices  of  all  commoc  iet  throughout  the  world,  when¬ 
ever  412^  grains  of  standard  silvt'  ace  worth  100  cents  in  the  United 
States  they  will  be  worth  that  si  m  t  very  where  else  and  cannot  be 
bought  for  less.  While  it  will  b  i  rged  that  such  a  result  would 


6 


enhance  the  price  of  silver  bullion  it  is  sufficent  for  us  to  know  that  an 
increase  proportional  to  the  increase  in  the  volume  of  money  result¬ 
ing  therefrom  would  be  immediately  made  in  the  price  of  every  form 
of  property  except  gold  and  credits,  in  the  civilized  world.  It  would 
be  a  shallow  selfishness  that  would  deny  prosperity  to  the  mining 
industries  at  the  cost  of  bankruptcy  to  the  whole  people.  The  legis¬ 
lation  to  demonetize  silver  has  given  an  unjust  increase  to  the  value 
of  gold  at  the  cost  of  the  prosperity  of  mankind.  Wheat  and  all 
other  agricultural  products  have  fallen  side  by  side  with  silver. 

3.  That  while  the  “  Sherman  act  ”  of  July  14,  1890,  was  a  device  of 
the  enemy  to  prevent  the  restoration  of  free  coinage,  and  is  greatly 
objectionable  because  it  continues  the  practical  exclusion  of  silver  from 
the  mints  and  reduces  it  from  a  money  metal  to  a  commercial  com¬ 
modity,  nevertheless,  its  repeal,  without  the  restoration  of  free  coin¬ 
age,  would  stop  the  expansion  of  our  currency  required  by  our  growth 
in  population  and  business,  widen  still  further  the  difference  between 
the  two  precious  metals,  thus  making  the  return  to  bimetallism  more 
difficult,  greatly  increase  the  purchasing  power  of  gold,  still  further 
break  down  the  price  of  the  products  of  the  farmer,  the  laborer,  the 
mechanic,  and  the  tradesman,  and  plunge  still  further  all  commerce, 
business,  and  industry  into  such  depths  of  wretchedness  as  to  endanger 
peace,  order,  the  preservation  of  free  institutions,  and  the  very  main¬ 
tenance  of  civilization.  We,  therefore,  in  the  name  of  the  republic 
and  of  humanity,  protest  against  the  repeal  of  the  said  act  of  July  14, 
1890,  except  by  an  act  restoring  free  bimetallic  coinage  as  it  existed 
prior  to  1873.  We  suggest  that  the  maintenance  of  bimetallism  by 
the  United  States  at  a  ratio  of  sixteen  to  one  will  increase  our  com¬ 
merce  with  all  the  silver-using  countries  of  the  world,  containing 
two-thirds  of  the  population  of  the  world,  without  decreasing  our 
commerce  with  those  nations  which  buy  our  raw  material  and  will 
compel  the  adoption  of  bimetallism  by  the  nations  of  Europe  sooner 
than  by  any  other  means. 

4.  We  assert  that  the  unparalled  calamities  which  now  afflict  the 
American  people  are  not  due  to  the  so-called  Sherman  act  of  1890, 
and  in  proof  th  ereof  we  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  same  evil 
conditions  now  prevail  over  all  tie  gold  standard  nations  of  the  world. 
We  are  convinced  that  bad  as  is  the  state  of  affairs  in  this  country  it 


5 

would  have  been  still  worse  but  f  r  t  e  Sherman  act  by  which  the 
Nation  has  obtained  to  some  exten \  j  expanding  circulation  to  meet 
the  demands  of  a  continent  in  proctSo  ^  colonization,  and  the  business 
exigencies  of  the  most  energetic  and  industrious  race  that  has  ever 
dwelt  on  the  earth,  and  we  insist  upon  the  execution  of  the  law  with¬ 
out  evasion  so  long  as  it  is  upon  the  statute  books,  and  upon  the 
purchase  each  month  of  the  full  amount  of  silver  that  it  provides  for, 
to  the  end  that  the  monthly  addition  to  the  circulating  medium  the 
law  secures  shall  be  maintained. 

5.  That  we  would  call  the  attention  of  the  people  to  the  fact  that 
in  the  midst  of  all  the  troubles  of  the  time  the  value  of  the  national 
bonds  and  the  national  legal  tender  money,  whether  made  of  gold, 
silver,  or  paper,  has  not  fallen  a  particle.  The  distrust  is  not  of  the 
government  or  its  money,  but  of  the  banks,  which  have,  as  we  believe, 
precipitated  the  present  panic  on  the  country  in  an  ill-advised  effort 
to  control  the  action  of  Congress  on  the  silver  question  and  the  issue 
of  bonds.  We  invite  the  bankers  to  attend  to  their  legitimate  busi¬ 
ness  and  permit  the  rest  of  the  people  to  have  their  full  share  in  the 
control  of  the  government.  In  this  way  they  will  much  sooner 
restore  that  confidence  which  is  so  necessary  to  the  prosperity  of  the 
people.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that,  while  boards  of  trade,  cham¬ 
bers  of  commerce,  bankers,  and  money  dealers  are  worthy  and  valu¬ 
able  men  in  their  places,  the  republic  can  more  safely  repose  upon  the 
great  mass  of  its  peaceful  toilers  and  producers,  and  that  this  “  busi¬ 
ness  man’s  age  ”  is  rapidly  exterminating  the  business  men  of  this 
country.  The  time  has  come  when  the  politics  of  the  Nation  should 
revert  as  far  as  possible  to  the  simple  and  pure  condition  out  of 
which  the  republic  arose 

6.  We  suggest  for  the  consideration  of  our  fellow-citizens  that  the 
refusal  of  the  opponents  of  bimetallism  to  propose  any  substitute  for 
the  present  law  or  to  elaborate  any  plan  for  the  future,  indicate  either 
an  ignorance  of  our  financial  needs  or  an  unwillingness  to  take  the 
public  into  their  confidence  ;  and  we  denounce  the  attempt  to  uncon¬ 
ditionally  repeal  the  Sherman  lav  a  an  attempt  to  secure  gold 
monometallism  in  flagrant  violatioi  pt  ;he  last  national  platforms  of 
all  the  political  parties. 


i 


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